1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of peptide chemistry. The invention relates to novel peptides and the use of these peptides as blockers of sodium (Na+) channels.
2. Background Art
Voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs) are found in all excitable cells. In neuronal cells of the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS), sodium channels are primarily responsible for generating the rapid upstroke of the action potential. In this manner, sodium channels are essential to the initiation and propagation of electrical signals in the nervous system. Proper function of sodium channels is therefore necessary for normal function of the neuron. Consequently, aberrant sodium channel function is thought to underlie a variety of medical disorders (See Hubner et al., Hum. Mol. Genet. 11:2435-2445 (2002) for a general review of inherited ion channel disorders) including epilepsy (Yogeeswari et al, Curr. Drug Target 5:589-602 (2004)), arrhythmia (Noble, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99:5755-5756 (2002)), myotonia (Cannon, Kidney Int. 57:772-779 (2000)), and pain (Wood et al., J. Neurobiol., 61:55-71 (2004)).
VGSCs are composed of one α-subunit, which forms the core of the channel and is responsible for voltage-dependent gating and ion permeation, and several auxiliary β-subunits (see, e.g., Chahine et al., CNS & Neurological Disorders-Drug Targets 7:144-158 (2008) and Kyle and Ilyin., J. Med. Chem. 50:2583-2588 (2007)). α-Subunits are large proteins composed of four homologous domains. Each domain contains six α-helical transmembrane spanning segments. There are currently 9 known members of the family of voltage-gated sodium channel α-subunits. Names for this family include SCNx, SCNAx, and Navx.x (see Table 1, below). The VGSC family has been phylogenetically divided into two subfamilies Nav1.x (all but SCN6A) and Nav2.x (SCN6A). The Nav1.x subfamily can be functionally subdivided into two groups, those which are sensitive to blocking by tetrodotoxin (TTX-sensitive or TTX-s) and those which are resistant to blocking by tetrodotoxin (TTX-resistant or TTX-r).
There are three members of the subgroup of TTX-resistant sodium channels. The SCN5A gene product (Nav1.5, H1) is almost exclusively expressed in cardiac tissue and has been shown to underlie a variety of cardiac arrhythmias and other conduction disorders (Liu et al., Am. J. Pharmacogenomics 3:173-179 (2003)). Consequently, blockers of Nav1.5 have found clinical utility in treatment of such disorders (Srivatsa et al., Curr. Cardiol. Rep. 4:401-410 (2002)). The remaining TTX-resistant sodium channels, Nav1.8 (SCN10A, PN3, SNS) and Nav1.9 (SCN11A, NaN, SNS2) are expressed in the peripheral nervous system and show preferential expression in primary nociceptive neurons. Human genetic variants of these channels have not been associated with any inherited clinical disorder. However, aberrant expression of Nav1.8 has been found in the CNS of human multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and also in a rodent model of MS (Black et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:11598-115602 (2000)). Evidence for involvement in nociception is both associative (preferential expression in nociceptive neurons) and direct (genetic knockout). Nav1.8-null mice exhibited typical nociceptive behavior in response to acute noxious stimulation but had significant deficits in referred pain and hyperalgesia (Laird et al., J. Neurosci. 22:8352-8356 (2002)).
TABLE 1Voltage-gated sodium channel gene familyTTXGeneTissueIC50DiseaseIndica-TypeSymbolDistribution(nM)AssociationtionsNav1.1SCN1ACNS/PNS10EpilepsyPain,seizures,neurode-generationNav1.2SCN2ACNS10EpilepsyEpilepsy,neurode-generationNav1.3SCN3ACNS15—PainNav1.4SCN4ASkeletal25MyotoniaMyotoniamuscleNav1.5SCN5AHeart2,000ArrhythmiaArrhyth-musclemiaNav1.6SCN8ACNS/PNS6—Pain,movementdisordersNav1.7SCN9APNS25ErythermalgiaPainNav1.8SCN10APNS50,000—PainNav1.9SCN11APNS1,000—Pain
The Nav1.7 (PN1, SCN9A) VGSC is sensitive to blocking by tetrodotoxin and is preferentially expressed in peripheral sympathetic and sensory neurons. The SCN9A gene has been cloned from a number of species, including human, rat, and rabbit and shows ˜90% amino acid identity between the human and rat genes (Toledo-Aral et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:1527-1532 (1997)).
An increasing body of evidence suggests that Nav1.7 may play a key role in various pain states, including acute, inflammatory and/or neuropathic pain. Deletion of the SCN9A gene in nociceptive neurons of mice led to an increase in mechanical and thermal pain thresholds and reduction or abolition of inflammatory pain responses (Nassar et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101:12706-12711 (2004)).
Sodium channel-blocking agents have been reported to be effective in the treatment of various disease states, and have found particular use as local anesthetics, e.g., lidocaine and bupivacaine, and in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, e.g., propafenone and amiodarone, and epilepsy, e.g., lamotrigine, phenyloin and carbamazepine (see Clare et al., Drug Discovery Today 5:506-510 (2000); Lai et al., Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. Toxicol. 44:371-397 (2004); Anger et al., J. Med. Chem. 44:115-137 (2001), and Catterall, Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 8:57-65 (1987)). Each of these agents is believed to act by interfering with the rapid influx of sodium ions.
Other sodium channel blockers such as BW619C89 and lifarizine have been shown to be neuroprotective in animal models of global and focal ischemia (Graham et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 269:854-859 (1994); Brown et al., British J. Pharmacol. 115:1425-1432 (1995)).
It has also been reported that sodium channel-blocking agents may be useful in the treatment of pain, including acute, chronic, inflammatory, neuropathic, and other types of pain such as rectal, ocular, and submandibular pain typically associated with paroxysmal extreme pain disorder; see, for example, Kyle and Ilyin, J. Med. Chem. 50:2583-2588 (2007); Wood et al., J. Neurobiol. 61:55-71 (2004); Baker et al., TRENDS in Pharmacological Sciences 22:27-31 (2001); and Lai et al., Current Opinion in Neurobiology 13:291-297 (2003); the treatment of neurological disorders such as epilepsy, seizures, epilepsy with febrile seizures, epilepsy with benign familial neonatal infantile seizures, inherited pain disorders, e.g., primary erythermalgia and paroxysmal extreme pain disorder, familial hemiplegic migraine, and movement disorder; and the treatment of other psychiatric disorders such as autism, cerebeller atrophy, ataxia, and mental retardation; see, for example, Chahine et al., CNS & Neurological Disorders-Drug Targets 7:144-158 (2008) and Meisler and Kearney, J. Clin. Invest. 115:2010-2017 (2005). In addition to the above-mentioned clinical uses, carbamazepine, lidocaine and phenyloin are occasionally used to treat neuropathic pain, such as from trigeminal neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy and other forms of nerve damage (Taylor and Meldrum, Trends Pharmacol. Sci. 16:309-316 (1995)). Furthermore, based on a number of similarities between chronic pain and tinnitus (Moller, Am. J. Otol. 18:577-585 (1997); Tonndorf, Hear. Res. 28:271-275 (1987)), it has been proposed that tinnitus may be viewed as a form of chronic pain sensation (Simpson, et al., Tip. 20:12-18 (1999)). Indeed, lidocaine and carbamazepine have been shown to be efficacious in treating tinnitus (Majumdar, B. et al., Clin. Otolaryngol. 8:175-180 (1983); Donaldson, Laryngol. Otol. 95:947-951 (1981)).
The polypeptide toxins from the tarantula Thrixopelma pruriens (protoxins) are members of the inhibitory cysteine-knot family of protein toxins, which contain 30 to 35 amino acid residues and three disulfide bridges. Protoxin I (ProTx I) and Protoxin II (ProTx II) are T. pruriens peptide toxins that have three cystine bridges in the connectivity pattern C2 to C16, C9 to C21, and C15 to C25. For example, Protoxin II (SEQ ID NO: 16) has cystine bridges as follows:

ProTx I and ProTx II inhibit activation of sodium channels (Middleton, R. E. et al., Biochemistry 41: 14734-14747 (2002)). ProTx I and ProTx II act as gating modifiers that prevent channel activation via a voltage sensor-trapping mechanism (Edgerton, G. B. et al., Toxicon 52: 489-500 (2008); Priest, B. T. et al., Toxicon 49: 194-201 (2007)). ProTx II inhibits Nav1.7 sodium channels (Schmalhofer, W. A. et al., Molecular Pharm. 74: 1476-1481 (2008)).
Phrixotoxin I (PaTx I) is a Grammostola spatulata spider toxin that acts as a gating modifier of Kv4 potassium channels (Chagot, B. et al., Protein Science 13: 1197-1208 (2004)). GrTx1 is a toxin isolated from Grammostola spatulata that blocks sodium channels (Clement, H. et al., Toxicon 50: 65-74 (2007)).
Many patients with either acute or chronic pain disorders respond poorly to current pain therapies, and developing resistance or insensitivity to opiates is common. In addition, many of the currently available treatments have undesirable side effects. Thus, there remains a need for more effective and safer analgesics that work by blocking sodium channels.